A/N: All characters belong to Janet Evanovich. I just like to use them for my own evil, sometimes.

My name is Stephanie Plum. I'm a bounty hunter, or bond enforcement agent, if you wanted to get technical. At least, that's what I called myself. My on again off again boyfriend, Joe Morelli, didn't think getting lucky and catching a few skips counted as being a bounty hunter.

That reasoning is why we're on the off again stage. My "mentor", Ranger, had been teaching me better techniques to capture FTA's. Instead of me running blindly and rolling in garbage, I was down to just running blindly.

I walked into the elevator at the Rangeman building, rolling my neck. My mother told me not to sleep without pillow or my neck would cramp, but just like I always do, I ignored her advice. Hence the neck cramp. I hate when my mother is right.

As I walked out, all eyes turned to me. I was greeted by smiles and waves, and Lester yelling "Hey, Beautiful!" like he always does. I smiled in return and headed to Ranger's office.

It made me happy to know that I could amuse the guys, even though some of them had to go to the hospital because of me. They didn't seem to mind, and they weren't nearly so scary now that I knew how to lose them in a maze of 'Burg streets.

The 'Burg is where I grew up. My mother had dinner ready on the table at 6 O'clock sharp, my father seated at one end of the table, holding his knife and fork like if he let go of them all of the food would disappear. It hadn't changed much over the years. I couldn't decide yet if that was a good thing or not.

I walked into Ranger's office, which was not where I, or probably anyone else for that matter, would picture him. To me, Ranger should be in the streets kicking ass, not sitting behind a desk checking e-mails.

"Hey, Babe." Ranger eyed me, a small smile on his lips. "Ready to train?"

"Actually… I was wondering if you had vacation time. Normally people do, but since you own the place I didn't know if you had to ask or if you could just leave and for how long…" I trailed off as he raised his eyebrow.

Because Ranger speaks about three words in all, I assumed the eyebrow was asking me why I was asking about time and vacations. "Well, Lula and Connie told me I should take a road trip. You know, to get away for a while. And I didn't want to go alone, because you know what happens. Bad things always happen."

I stood there awkwardly as the eyebrow rose, and the other one joined it. I took a breath and said hurriedly, "But you don't have to if you don't want to, you're probably busy, I didn't want to go with Joe but I guess I could ask someone else just never mind this was stupid…" I trailed off while mentally slapping myself for even asking him.

Why would he even want to go? Of course he wouldn't, he had a business to run and he told me himself he only kept me around for entertainment.

"Sure", he said. "I'll go. When did you want to leave?"

I stared at him, backtracking in my head and wondering if I missed something. I heard someone in the control room murmur "Pay up!" and he glared in their general direction. "I… Uhm, I was going to leave tomorrow… If that's all right with you?" My voice raised into a question.

"Of course. I'll pick you up at 7." He stated this with no hesitation, leaning forward and taking my hand, smiling at me. Not just a wimpy little "corner-of-the-mouth-turn-up" smile, but a couple hundred kilowatts of perfect teeth and eye wrinkles.

I momentarily lost my breath. "Okay. I'll go get packed now. We're not riding in the Porsche, are we?"

He laughed and shook his head. Wow, smiles and a laugh. Did Hell freeze over? "I'll bring one of the Explorers. More room for everything we could need… Or do." That got a whistle from the control room and a "Go bossman!"

I felt my face heat up. "Uh… Yeah. Sure."

As I walked out of the office, I knew everyone was looking at me. Just as Lester was about to make some smart remark, Ranger barked, "Santos! Office! Now." The guys burst out laughing and Lester smiled sheepishly. "Later, Bombshell."

I shook my head and got into the elevator. I was never going to hear the end of this one.